Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/245

Rh illusion. Lust should be got rid of by discerning (and realising) that (our body is) temporary, that it is suffering, is soul-less, and unclean. Feelings of love, compassion, and benevolence should be cultivated so that anger may be entirely suppressed.

"Listen earnestly (to the preaching of the doctrine), meditate upon it fervently, practise it zealously and realise its truth, so that all illusion may be thrown off. In the four ways (mentioned above) enlighten your mind.”

The most popular review, at present, of the philosophical systems of India is the Sarva-darsana-sangraha, the author of which was the great religious reformer Mahdwacharya. It was composed in the fourteenth century, when the Buddhist and Lokâyata faiths were almost extinct in India, and hence it mentions the names of the six systems as follows :—(i) Purva Mimansa, (ii) Uttara Mimansa or Vedanta, (iii) Sankhya, (iv) Yoga, (v) Nyaya, (vi) Vaiseshika. Oriental scholars in Europe following the Sarva-darsana-sangraha have treated Buddhism and Lokyâyatam as non-Hindu systems. But it will be seen from the foregoing summary quoted from the Mani-mékalai that the six systems of philosophy which were current in India in the early centuries of the Christian Era were the Lokyâyata, Bauddha, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaiseshika and Mimansa. These were the original six systems of Hindu philosophy: and the Bauddha and Lokyâyata, far from being non-Hindu, formed two of the six Hindu systems. It is noteworthy however that in describing briefly the doctrines of each of the above systems, the Manimêkalai does not give any account of the Nyaya: but in its place it mentions the Ajivaka and Nigranta philosophies which were then evidently the representatives of the older Nyaya system. The Ajivàkas and Nigrantas appear to have been very numerous during the reign of the Magadha emperor Asoka as they are mentioned in his edicts.

The student of history will be doubtless surprised to find that all the phases of philosophic thought now current in Europe have their counterpart in the ancient philosophies of the Hindus. The Lokhâyata which asserts that life is a certain collocation of matter, that there is no soul nor a future existence, and that men tied not care for anything but their welfare in the present life,